Number of Characters

[L4G]

I'm sure you will all remember back in the day when the number of characters on a server was restricted.

Also the empires of the characters was restricted, If you had a TR and VS you couldn't have a VS character on a single server.

I'm hoping that they bring this clause back and implement it in the new Planetside and with longer cool down periods than they have now.

Discuss ... ?

[Grimster]

I think they should restrict you to only one empire per server. Naturally since in Planetside there is only one server its justified that this is removed. But I think we can safely assume that the sequel will probably at least house three servers. One for east coast, one for west coast and one for Europe. So if you have a desire to play on another empire you have to roll a character on another server. Thats what I did. I play NC normally but sometimes if I wanted a change of scenery I would go to the east coast server despite that I am located in Sweden. Worked great for me. :)

Regarding the number of characters on a server I don't exactly remember how many you could have but I think 5 or 6 on a server is reasonable?

You can find a ongoing discussion about being able to play more than one empire on a server here.

http://www.planetside-universe.com/forums/showthread.php?t=35880&page=2

Thread is not initially about that subject but you can find a discussion starting about it from page 2.

[CutterJohn]

I have absolutely zero issues with having multiple characters per server, and multiple empires on the same server, provided there is a mechanism to prevent swapping to the overpopulated empire.

I believe that people care about this for two reasons. 1. PS originally didn't have it. And 2, It was implemented poorly when added.

If PS had this from the beginning, and implemented in such a way that it worked fine, people would now be arguing that people should not be restricted to a single empire. Thats the only reason that makes sense to me, because that people want this restriction is completely baffling.

[Sifer2]

One character per server is the best I think. I know a lot wont agree with me on that but I have my reasons. I've always preferred it.

In this game benefits would be no switching out characters with different certs whenever you want. Only serve one Empire so more loyalty less spying. Can't have one character for being a douchebag an another to play serious on you get one reputation. etc.

[Wrath]

on release of the orginal PS there where 6 servers 2 west coast 2 east coast and 2 europan. shortly after release 1 of the europain was shut down leave EU with 1 server.

reason i'm bringing this up is bacause yes its ok to say 1 chars on 1 race per server that works fine if you've got multi servers to switch between but not if theres a choice of 1 like in the EU.

I was primary NC on werner but had TR and VS chars as well the balaincing mechanic they had for the servers IE bonus exp for the races with least pop worked fairly well I felt. and also the pop caps on the continents ment that there was always an even fight to be had.

also from what I remeber you could only change races once every 24 hours so swapping between the races was always a pain.

[Valverde]

I think you should only be allowed 1 character per server. You should defiantly never be allowed to make another character, on another side within the same server. But they give you enough Cert points one character should be enough.

[Firefly]

No fourth empire, please. You want to run multiple empires on the same server? Get a second and third account.

[Wrath]

why should you be forced to buy a game 3 times just get the full experince ?

you shouldnt and sony wont make you do that either there are systems and ways to stop people hoping between empires so they can be on which ever teams winning in that hour

[Grimster]

No fourth empire, please. You want to run multiple empires on the same server? Get a second and third account.

Who said anything about a fourth empire or are you being sarcastic and I simply don't get it? :)

[Aractain]

Hes talking about the empire hoppers who switch side based on the current winner.

Annoying but dont ruin the game by doing something silly like stopping people from playing what they want. Thats a one way ticket to no profit.

[Grimster]

Ah I see well in that case I tend to agree with Firefly either that or you do what I did. Roll an alt on a different empire on a different server. Simple as that, I think its safe to say that PlanetSide Next will have more than one server on launch. :)

[Warruz]

You pick a side and you should be stuck with it on that server. Being able to swap makes the game at least to me less appealing because people dont have pride in the side they chose and it makes balancing side a daily or w/e the cooldown would be issue.

[Aractain]

Being able to swap dosn't make people not have pride. They don't have pride to START with. Not allowing them to swap is just annoying.

I do have "pride" in my faction but I wanted to play the other sides now and then but I want to play with the people I know and fight on MY server.

[Warruz]

Being able to swap dosn't make people not have pride. They don't have pride to START with. Not allowing them to swap is just annoying.

I do have "pride" in my faction but I wanted to play the other sides now and then but I want to play with the people I know and fight on MY server.

So you just go to the wining side for the day? I mean really what is the real reason you want to be able to swap? Is it weapons? Then you could go on a different server. Is it you want to be on what you may think is the "winning" side for the day? Then that defeats the purpose. If you want to fight the people you play with another system could be instituted to have those on the same side test their metal.

Not being able to swap helps keep things more balancing since you cant on a whim go "whos doing better today?" "Oh NC is doing better il go with them today" Now not only the side you where on originally or normally has one less the side you now picked has one more.. While in a game like planetside a 2 person different may not be huge it adds up if multiple people are doing it and then there is the whole issue of being a spy.

[Aractain]

You can influence that with numbers. The problem with planetside was the only thing to get past max BR was kills or 'feeling like you were winning'.

You situation lead leads to simply people not playing on the server with the low pop. I want a system that says "Hey, wanna play Vanu? You get "THIS AWSOME SAUCE" Nice huh?".

[Wrath]

So you just go to the wining side for the day? I mean really what is the real reason you want to be able to swap? Is it weapons? Then you could go on a different server. Is it you want to be on what you may think is the "winning" side for the day? Then that defeats the purpose. If you want to fight the people you play with another system could be instituted to have those on the same side test their metal.

Not being able to swap helps keep things more balancing since you cant on a whim go "whos doing better today?" "Oh NC is doing better il go with them today" Now not only the side you where on originally or normally has one less the side you now picked has one more.. While in a game like planetside a 2 person different may not be huge it adds up if multiple people are doing it and then there is the whole issue of being a spy.

i think your argument is stupid for a couple of reason as I pointed out earlier one the orginal PS launch there was 6 servers 2 EU 4 US the 2nd EU server was shut down very soon after launch leaving just one.

so if that is the same in PS:N why should EU players be forced to play on US servers and endure inferor game play when they want to have a blast at the diffent play styles of the other factions.

its ignorant to assume people only want to play the other factions cause they are winning that day because the simple reason with 2-3 hours another faction can be on top.

and speaking from a personal prefence if I logged in and saw 1 factions getting totally destroyed that day i'd be more inclined to switch to them for the day. because I dont enjoy walk over. and all my fond memoirys of planetside come from logging in and helping turn a dire defence into a domination offence.

[Bags]

Leave it how it is now, but don't let people switch onto the highest pop empire from a lower pop empire.

[Warruz]

i think your argument is stupid for a couple of reason as I pointed out earlier one the orginal PS launch there was 6 servers 2 EU 4 US the 2nd EU server was shut down very soon after launch leaving just one.

so if that is the same in PS:N why should EU players be forced to play on US servers and endure inferor game play when they want to have a blast at the diffent play styles of the other factions.

its ignorant to assume people only want to play the other factions cause they are winning that day because the simple reason with 2-3 hours another faction can be on top.

and speaking from a personal prefence if I logged in and saw 1 factions getting totally destroyed that day i'd be more inclined to switch to them for the day. because I dont enjoy walk over. and all my fond memoirys of planetside come from logging in and helping turn a dire defence into a domination offence.

While i understand using PS as a starting point , it has been 8 years(?). We dont know how many servers they intend on having since its been so long and its a new playing field. More people most likely will be interested in it.

Another thing to note is how servers could be done, hell look at wow. When it Launched it had servers split into their region they where intended for. Now they dont even show that information unless you are looking at the clock ingame.

As for the reason for wanting to be a different faction, i have to ask what is it? I asked it earlier and the best answer i have seen is someone wants to play against the people they play with(which honestly to me unfair especially if you know certain people or outfits do the same tactic). Are there really any more reasons?

[Wrath]

While i understand using PS as a starting point , it has been 8 years(?). We dont know how many servers they intend on having since its been so long and its a new playing field. More people most likely will be interested in it.

Another thing to note is how servers could be done, hell look at wow. When it Launched it had servers split into their region they where intended for. Now they dont even show that information unless you are looking at the clock ingame.

As for the reason for wanting to be a different faction, i have to ask what is it? I asked it earlier and the best answer i have seen is someone wants to play against the people they play with(which honestly to me unfair especially if you know certain people or outfits do the same tactic). Are there really any more reasons?

if rumors are true then PS:N is a few months from launch and not 1 gaming mag as any news on it infact only 1 new site I know of is tracking the news. I play with a group of guys have done for about 8 years now where a social group gone though loads of different games together including playing PS and they all loved PS yet not one of them knew a sequal was in the pipe line let alone suppossedly close to launch. so how do you expect there to be more interest in it?

at peak I think PS had about 75k subs, which was only enough to keep 3 servers going which if PS:N reachs that levels it'll be doing massively well. because even though the FPS market has grown greatly since PS was launched the competion out there is so much more intenense. COD, CS:S, TF2, Bad Company 2, battlefield Heroes, Battlefield play4free coming soon.

as for the reason to wanting to play another side the best reason given on this tread isnt about want to play with or against people you know its about wanting to try out the different play styles of the factions and wanting to see all of what the game offers not just 1/3 of it. and its about being able to do that while enjoying the same level of ping and performace.

[Warruz]

if rumors are true then PS:N is a few months from launch and not 1 gaming mag as any news on it infact only 1 new site I know of is tracking the news. I play with a group of guys have done for about 8 years now where a social group gone though loads of different games together including playing PS and they all loved PS yet not one of them knew a sequal was in the pipe line let alone suppossedly close to launch. so how do you expect there to be more interest in it?

at peak I think PS had about 75k subs, which was only enough to keep 3 servers going which if PS:N reachs that levels it'll be doing massively well. because even though the FPS market has grown greatly since PS was launched the competion out there is so much more intenense. COD, CS:S, TF2, Bad Company 2, battlefield Heroes, Battlefield play4free coming soon.

as for the reason to wanting to play another side the best reason given on this tread isnt about want to play with or against people you know its about wanting to try out the different play styles of the factions and wanting to see all of what the game offers not just 1/3 of it. and its about being able to do that while enjoying the same level of ping and performace.

I expect more interest in it because games are more popular then ever. lots have changed in 03 till now. We dont know what is going on with the marketing and what have you, we dont know what will be released come march. It could be the website and everything along with closed beta but once again who knows?

Sure there is alot of competition but that has been the FPS Market forever. There has always been ton of competition but what always wins was having a niche. TF2/Battlefield/COD all have something different from the other and enough of it to make it stand out and unlike MMO's FPS gamers do not have a issue of one game only like MMO's( i know il only play 1 monthly fee for a game, il never have two running at the same time).

Im not saying dont see the whole game, im just saying a different server. In this day and age id be surprised if they actually separated servers by where you live beyond continents or countries . If there becomes a shortage of people and servers get mooshed then by all means go to the system currently, but much like the start of PS i would prefer to keep it one faction per server. I doubt your ping will change significantly (but i also understand wanting a low ping, as most FPS gamers im sure when hunting for a server to hop on you look for something for under 100, while in a MMO 200 is prob your limit).

Most of this is speculation however so lets keep this limited in this respect.

The only reason to play another faction is to play with the other factions toys. The MMO and FPS Market is bigger and so is the amount of gamers. The Only real reason to play as a different faction on the same server is ping.

Ok So if ping difference is negligible and there are at least 3 servers this is a non issue.

[Wrath]

I expect more interest in it because games are more popular then ever. lots have changed in 03 till now. We dont know what is going on with the marketing and what have you, we dont know what will be released come march. It could be the website and everything along with closed beta but once again who knows?

Sure there is alot of competition but that has been the FPS Market forever. There has always been ton of competition but what always wins was having a niche. TF2/Battlefield/COD all have something different from the other and enough of it to make it stand out and unlike MMO's FPS gamers do not have a issue of one game only like MMO's( i know il only play 1 monthly fee for a game, il never have two running at the same time).

Im not saying dont see the whole game, im just saying a different server. In this day and age id be surprised if they actually separated servers by where you live beyond continents or countries . If there becomes a shortage of people and servers get mooshed then by all means go to the system currently, but much like the start of PS i would prefer to keep it one faction per server. I doubt your ping will change significantly .

they will seperaet the server as per where you live its as simple as that there no way they can turn round to a EU player base and justify high pings to them while running 3-4 US based servers. if they have the numbers for 3 or more servers then they will base atleast 1 in europe

pings count in FPS and sony know this so if they have 3-4-5 servers all US based they will agravate there paying subsribers from europe who will take offence to paying there sub every month to play on servers which put them at a massive disadvantage.

the end of the day if thats the case and we only have 1 EU server again then I dont support the idea of 1 empire per server if they have 2-3 then yeah sure i'm fine with that.

[DviddLeff]

One empire per server.

Or just put in a three hour timer before you can change empires from when you log off of a character.

[Valverde]

One empire per server.

Or just put in a three hour timer before you can change empires from when you log off of a character.

I don't know about that one. A three hour timer is like sending a bum (or hell for that fact anyone) to jail. What is the real punishment you get three meals a day, clothing on your back, TV, exercise, bed, heck there is even educational programs to keep your mind in top performance. All a timer means is I can do anyone of those things while I wait.

[DviddLeff]

Because it stops people logging on, realising they are in a losing fight and switching to the winning team.

[CutterJohn]

Because it stops people logging on, realising they are in a losing fight and switching to the winning team.

Who cares? You want to prevent too many from switching. If just a few do its no big deal. Inertia rarely lasted that long anyway.

Just disable swapping to an empire once that empire reaches somewhere in the 35-40% range. Problem solved.

[Bags]

Who cares? You want to prevent too many from switching. If just a few do its no big deal. Inertia rarely lasted that long anyway.

Just disable swapping to an empire once that empire reaches somewhere in the 35-40% range. Problem solved.

This. Though I wouldn't mind everyone's multiple characters showing the same name.

IE: I log in on my Br25/cr5, my name is Bags
I log on NC, log on a Br20/Cr2, my name is still Bags.

Yay for accountability and less anomynousity.

[Furret]

In my mind there are two solutions.

1) One empire per server, but three servers to allow for one character of each empire.
This would stop empire hopping altogether, which is a good thing. However, I don't think empire hopping was ever much of a problem. Also, this would raise a lag issue if you really decided you liked the NC, even though you started out with the VS on your home server.

Example: You're a European who played VS on Werner. You decide you're a tad homophobic and that you don't enjoy running around in purple pajamas. You go to your next closest server, Emerald, and try out the TR. Then you learn that they're all a bunch of **** anyway, and go to Markov to play with the NC. There you find your home, as everyone knows the NC are the coolest people ever. Problem is, you're forced into a connection that goes halfway around the planet, which is obviously not desirable.

Solution: Empire switches on a server. These could either have a maximum number (say three times) or a cooldown (a week or month). Basically, the limitations are to force you to pick an empire for an extended period of time.

With the maximum number solution, you can start with the NC, change to the TR, change to the VS, and then if necessary, change back to the empire you liked best (assuming its not the VS). With this system, its suggested that you spend a month or so in each empire to really get a good feeling for how they function, and also suggested that you use the empire changes regardless of how much you're enjoying the current empire, since you could use them as fast as you want (if you REALLY don't like the one you switched to).


2) With the cooldown, it would completely eliminate switching empires just because they're winning, unless you only played once a week/month.

Basically, my goal with both of the solutions is to force you into picking an empire and sticking with it, although still allowing you to change between them to find where you fit best.


EDIT: Slightly unrelated: They need to change the name filter too. For some reason "Furret" was an unacceptable name, and I had to go by Sentret =(

[Hamma]

I totally agree that empire switching should not be allowed on the same server you should be locked to an empire. That's how it was and that is how it should be at least at the start of PSN.

[ArcticPrism]

I could understand being locked to one empire per server. That makes sense to me. One character per server however does not. Way too restrictive. Why should anyone be stuck with their cert setup if they don't like it? Bored of infantry for the day or no good infantry battles? Doesn't make sense to be forced to stay infantry and not be able to go to a vehicle alt.

[Furret]

Yeah, there shouldn't be a character limit for servers, because i'd much prefer to relog as my air support character if my ghost hacking character isn't needed any more. Waiting 4 sets of 6 hour periods was not exactly fun.

[CutterJohn]

Though I wouldn't mind everyone's multiple characters showing the same name.

IE: I log in on my Br25/cr5, my name is Bags
I log on NC, log on a Br20/Cr2, my name is still Bags.

Yay for accountability and less anomynousity.

That'd be nifty. If I have alts I really just want the same name on everything, for simplicity.

If you want to play solo one night and not let your friends know you are on, you can just play the other server.

[LordReaver]

Due to the server merges, I now have 30 characters on one server.

[Hamma]

:lol:

I have never understood the need for multiple Chars in PS, I have one.

[Bags]

:lol:

I have never understood the need for multiple Chars in PS, I have one.

I got one on each empire. My friend had a BFR / vehicle toon though.

[Traak]

So you just go to the wining side for the day?
Yes. When the empire I'm with is overdosing on stupid, then I have to find elsewhere to go to actually have FUN.

After watching too many resecures gifted to the other side by the dual-empire, dual-box cheaters, it can get mighty tiring. Much more fun to switch over to Vanu and do AAmaxing, and not care about what the idiots are screwing up, on purpose.

Support is not fun when everyone is just dying nonstop, and never advancing. Your AMS also doesn't last long that way. Hard to heal and revive people when they are hiding behind you. Nah, easier and more fun to jump over the side that isn't being as idiotic at that particular moment.

[L4G]

Some good points made throughout this post,

ive decided im in favour of 1 Empire per Server, not so such a restriction of characters per server although im likely to have 2 at the most. Only reason id use two would be to have more certs available usually have a main character and a cloaker in current planetside. HOPEFULLY they will not give all certs to a top level BR player this time.